Tales from Titchmarsh

Having written for this magazine since its launch, Alan reflects on what has changed in 30 years – and why gardening is more vital than ever

It’s been a while… and I must confess that I’ve rather enjoyed occupying this little attic room at the back of the magazine. The view is ever changing and much has happened since I penned my first ‘Tales’ back in 1991.

How did I come to be here? Well, having written about gardening for a living since the early 1970s, I took to the BBC Radio 4 airwaves in 1977 with You and Yours and Today before presenting television programmes from 1979. I covered the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for 30 years, and in 1991, having been an established member of the BBC’s gardening team for seven years, I was asked to contribute to a new magazine.

My missionary zeal in terms of the benefits and importance of gardening – to humans as well as to the landscape and nature as a whole – has never waned, but much has changed in 30 years. We are all, thankfully, increasingly aware of our responsibility to the environment and the undesirable effects our excesses can have on it. The term ‘global warming’ was first used in 1989, just two years before this magazine appeared.

Now it guides and directs our every move – or should do. The movement against the use of peat in the garden was well underway, driven by Geoff Hamilton and continued by me when I took over Gardeners’ World in 1996, when persuading people of the wisdom of putting away the sprays and the slug pellets to rely more on natural predators was gaining traction. Organic gardening was becoming more mainstream, having shed its image as being the province of cranks and weirdos. That said, gardening was still considered to be best suited to BBC2. Until Ground Force came along.

I had been presenting Gardeners’ World for a year, and the BBC decided I needed a ‘vehicle’ of my own. Nice of them. They asked what I could do with a piece of ground in two days and so, in 1997, the garden makeover was born and Charlie Dimmock became a star.

Now, when you think about it, gardening has always been about makeovers. That’s what gardening is: cultivating and designing a piece of earth for human pleasure and sustenance – but in two days? I was sceptical. The purists winced; keen horticultural friends intimated that I had sold my soul to the devil. But I reasoned that if I could reach a wider audience, some of whom would find Gardeners’ World intimidating, then surely that was worth a few brickbats.

All operations were properly carried out and, thanks to the gift of a garden, lives were changed for the better. The programme garnered audiences of 12 million. Today, Love Your Garden continues the tradition, creating gardens for those whose lives will be transformed by access to a patch of cultivated ground, while Gardeners’ World continues to enjoy a large and loyal following.

Lockdown, in particular, has brought people face to face with their garden as never before. They are confined to it and perhaps feel they had better make the most of it. It is not long before the beneficial effects of tending a patch of earth become evident. I don’t deny there are frustrations, but gardening can feed you – spiritually as well as nutritionally. If you take the trouble to watch your garden grow – I mean really watch it, and learn from it – it can change your outlook on life. There is nothing more real than a garden, no greater sheet-anchor to nature than that patch outside your back door.

As a boy in the 1950s, I would visit my local nursery for plants. I remember the first garden centre opening near my Yorkshire home in the 1960s. It would be another 30 years before the arrival of the internet in 1993. Amazon and eBay opened their doors in 1995 – four years after this magazine appeared – and now, in the 21st century, online shopping for plants is well established. It has been a fascinating journey for gardeners and the range of plants available has never been greater.

I consider myself lucky to still be broadcasting and writing but, above all, to have discovered the everenriching properties of tending a piece of earth. The one I preside over now is rather larger than the one that I had as a boy. But the size is immaterial – how you cherish it is what matters.

If you take the trouble to watch your garden grow – I mean really watch it, and learn from it – it can change your outlook on life